Maybe Blizzard should add a third option for health bars- just a small unobtrusive single square next to each unit that goes from green to red/dim red, so you can roughly tell health without taking up much of the screen.

Avril_Lavigne

United States446 Posts

March 25 2012 22:55 GMT

#223

Spectating is mainly for entertainment purposes. Spectators professional or casual don't need that much information. Would you like to have health bars shown during the battle between optimus prime and megatron in a Transformers movie? No.

MaestrO_

United States591 Posts

March 25 2012 22:58 GMT

#224

i think they can get in the way in bigger battles, i'd prefer them to be off

Reval

United States297 Posts

March 25 2012 23:02 GMT

#225

On, mainly for energy

Nerski

United States1095 Posts

March 25 2012 23:13 GMT

#226

On February 19 2012 10:19 Diamond wrote:
A LARGE LARGE LARGE part of any viewing audience and almost always the majority is the casual fan. The casual fan can not read the info given by that many health bars. Only higher level players or hardcore viewers will be able to pull info off of it.

Also mainly with Zerg you end up seeing a swarm of health bars, not units, which looks silly.

Edit: Just to clarify however, selected is the best. There is times where they should be flicked on, and a good observer will know what to select or in a pinch just just hit alt.

Pretty much sums it up right there, while quite a large majority of TL posters are the more 'hardcore fans' and I have no doubt (on) will win. The actual majority of viewers probably just won't enjoy all the additional information as much.

Speaking from my own experience doing some MLG's, z33k, Midwest Meltdown, and more. I know I don't tend to miss a lot observing and casting at the same time, but that's taken a LONG time to get used to doing. I can 100% say though that being the observer while casting is not optimal. I know for certain I don't obs as well when i'm casting, nor do I cast as well when I'm obsing. It's just one of those deals where one or the other will suffer when you are having to multitask your brain to to do both effectively.

Plus you have to consider the potential for fatigue into it when you are obsing and casting games at the same time.

Now should there be a move to dedicated obs across the board on tournaments over time. Sure as people can afford to pay observers I think you'll see that happen more and more. Which will quell a lot of the problems people are voicing in my opinion.

NunedQ

Germany235 Posts

March 25 2012 23:14 GMT

#227

On March 26 2012 07:55 Avril_Lavigne wrote:
Spectating is mainly for entertainment purposes. Spectators professional or casual don't need that much information. Would you like to have health bars shown during the battle between optimus prime and megatron in a Transformers movie? No.

What a terrible comparison. Those things are not in any way similar.

Filter

Canada620 Posts

March 25 2012 23:15 GMT

#228

I prefer them off, it takes up way too much space if they're on. The battle rarely hinges on units being hurt and most times that's early game or expensive units late which a good spec will pickup anyway.

I'm really surprised at the number of people that want them on, it's usually fairly obviously which units are pretty beatup.

StreetWise

United States594 Posts

March 25 2012 23:24 GMT

#229

Doing an informal poll of my casual friends, they all preferred health bars off. However, the few competitive friends I have prefer them on. Even though I prefer them on myself, I would still vote for them off as I see the casual friendly view to be of more importance than being able to see health for the minority.

Falling

Canada11349 Posts

March 25 2012 23:27 GMT

#230

Yes! Someone else did the work I was going to try to do.
To me it's becomes the Battle of the Health Bars and it's a Blizzard design issue.

Take a look at the difference:

Current

Potential

Now you could tweak it a bit because I think the second one is a little too hard to see with the workers' healthbars, but I think it's the right idea.

Taken from here:
http://sc2pod.com/trackers/blue/starcraft-2/?id=4199

See the problem is any army with depth, the overlap that you see is just more healthbars where the actual unit is hidden. This is further exacberated with unit clumping. I think it also has to do with our tendency (at least in English) to read from the top of the page to the bottom. I'm pretty sure we perceive what's on top before what's on bottom.

With it on top, it just looks way too busy and it's hard to register the individual parts you are seeing as it just becomes a mass of green, yellow, and red lights, combined with attack animation.

Areon

United States273 Posts

March 25 2012 23:31 GMT

#231

I've never figured out why people don't like health bars on. You can't see the condition of a flock of Mutalisks or how heavily those Stalkers are getting munched up by Zerglings. The inability to see when a unit is going to die takes away a large element of spectating IMHO; I wish casters had health bars on all the time. Would make for a better experience if you could actually know the condition of an army.

lowercase

Canada1047 Posts

March 25 2012 23:46 GMT

#232

I really wish units would just visibly show (by bleeding, sparking, smoking, etc) when they are below 25% health.

Sernen

United States40 Posts

March 26 2012 00:28 GMT

#233

This drove me mad over the course of this weekends MLG. So much missing information in so many games that really takes away from the enjoyment of watcing SC2. Part of me wonders if the people that don't like them on simply don't realize just how much they are missing out on since they don't give it a chance.

Jdorty

United States17 Posts

March 26 2012 03:44 GMT

#234

This has always been a big pet peeve to me. The way I look at it is that its similar to the overlaying markers in football. How much would it suck if we couldn't see the first down line?

BearStorm

United States795 Posts

March 26 2012 03:50 GMT

#235

I always play with them on, but while watching it might be better for the masses to have less clutter on the screen. I agree with the current healthbars off in casted games.

mrGRAPE

Singapore293 Posts

March 26 2012 04:52 GMT

#236

I've always preferred health bars on even when playing or when watching a game. You could argue that a casual viewer would be overloaded with too much info, but I think that unless the observer is really good at knowing what parts of the battle he should show, health bars should always be on so we don't randomly see buildings blowing up and go "What just happened?". Too often the observers or casters will miss the action - having health bars on will allow them to quickly zoom into the more important parts of the battle rather than trying to box random clumps of units to see which is better to show.

docvoc

United States5491 Posts

March 26 2012 04:55 GMT

#237

On February 19 2012 10:30 L3g3nd_ wrote:
I cant stand healthbars being off. One of the most frustrating things as a player, but i can see why casual viewers might prefer them off.

This, i used to play that way, never again *shiver*

Hrrrrm

United States2081 Posts

March 26 2012 05:05 GMT

#238

On March 26 2012 12:44 Jdorty wrote:
This has always been a big pet peeve to me. The way I look at it is that its similar to the overlaying markers in football. How much would it suck if we couldn't see the first down line?

There is a difference between one line and hundreds of green lines that obscure the actual units and action. I have no problems with healthbars on select. If they are on all the time they are useless 99% of the time because I don't need to see that units are 100% for the majority of the game. Maybe Blizzard will be motivated to make an option that allows Healthbars to automatically come on when a units gets <75%, <50%, <25% and allow you to choose. But I cannot stand just seeing hundreds of green bars while SPECTATING that are useless 99% of the time.

0neder

United States3733 Posts

March 26 2012 05:07 GMT

#239

I'm really disappointed in the community on this vote. I want to see Starcraft, not healthbars. They weren't needed in BroodWar, and they are not needed in SC2. Omniscience is boring.

EDIT: and a nice bonus to actually fixing unit spacing and not having them overlap each other would be that healthbars are more legible (but I'm still against them except for manually selected units).

Danglars

United States12133 Posts

March 28 2012 11:54 GMT

#240

On February 19 2012 23:04 taintmachine wrote:

Show nested quote +

no idea why you'd want the observer tabs off. they let you gain information about the game on the fly. sounds like you are trying to test the caster's ability to cast instead of enjoying the game and letting the caster add to your enjoyment -_-

I say not, I want the observer tabs off. Sometimes, it can give the nice useful information like Caster A saying, "Hey look, MKP has 20 tanks and MVP only has 15!" The production tab in particular lessens the enjoyment of watching a game with excitement. Have you heard of suspense in third party narration? I call on you to think about that as a method of enjoying the game. I put my trust in the caster/observer team, or 2 casters + observer team, to not suddenly miss an entire army getting built and only show it halfway in through a fight.

Yeah, if I'm there with my starcraft notebook I'll appreciate it. As a cast observer, I want the suspense. I want to be drawn in like a movie to a plot. I'll see them when they're made and researched. I'll rely on the exciting voice telling me, "HE'S HATCHING 20 MUTAS" and not squiting at a number in the upper left.

You're free to disagree with me on that, and I won't be mad. Just giving you the idea as to why the production tab being off is a good thing. Why I'm not trying to test the caster's ability (If its just you, and you gotta talk and observe, there will be too much going on at some point and its a necessary tool). Why I'm getting enjoyment for gasping at the sudden units out on the field rather than expecting them from a little icon and bar in a corner.